Field was born in Pasadena, California, the daughter of Maggie, an actress, and Richard Dryden Field, who worked in sales. Her parents divorced in 1950 and her mother subsequently remarried to actor and stuntman Jock Mahoney.

She attended Portola Middle School then Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, California where she was a cheerleader. Among her classmates were famed financier Michael Read more...

Field got her start on television, as the boy-struck, barefoot surfer girl in the mid-1960s surf culture sitcom series Gidget. She then went on to star in her best known television role, as Sister Bertrille in The Flying Nun. In an interview on the Flying Nun DVD, she said that she would have preferred to continue playing Gidget. Field also appeared in The Girl with Something Extra. While starring Read more...

During her acceptance speech for her 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Field made an anti-war statement: "If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no goddamn wars in the first place." In the US, Fox censored her, so that she was cut off at "god--", and did not return to her speech. Fox also censored two other speakers, saying only that the content might be "considered Read more...